Harry Potter 60

29

Champions

Cynthia slowly opened her eyes and yawned. Her cheek pressed against Erus' neck and she stretched carefully. She looked up to see that Blaise had already woken up and left. She shrugged lightly and slowly pulled away.

Erus had fallen back asleep again and now the two boys lay on the bed, Draco's arms firmly around his blood-brother, as if afraid to let go. Vates was snoozing on the floor, hissing randomly about Merlin knows what, and Amber looked at the girl sleepily. Cynthia turned back to her brothers and gently draped the covers up around them again. It was Saturday so they deserved to sleep in.

She got up and took Amber with her as she exited.

Erus woke up slowly and felt Draco's body against his own. He opened his eyes to find the blonde looking at him.

"Morning," Draco said.

"Morning," the teen replied. "Have you been awake long?"

"Nope, only a few minutes," the blonde teen said and yawned a bit. "Shall we get up?"

"What time is it?"

"Nine," Draco said, squinting to look at the clock on the bedside table. "Are your friends early risers?"

"Mostly Stella," the raven-haired teen said and yawned. "She might stay in the carriage until the others are up though."

They got up slowly and Draco now began to wonder where his familiar was.

"Probably with Cynthia," Erus said.

"Why with her?"

"You didn't notice she spent most of the night here with us?" Erus asked.

"… No. I guess I didn't."

Erus shrugged and got up. He cast a cleaning spell over himself, as he was not in the mood for a shower, and over his clothes before tugging his boots on.

"Vates," he murmured.

The Basilisk immediately came up and slithered up his leg until he was resting on the teen's shoulders.

"Mice," Vates mumbled before his eyes closed.

"Mice?" Erus asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Mice," the snake confirmed and fell asleep. Erus blinked and wondered if the snake was going to say anything else. Vates' strange snoring told him the snake would not say anything else.

The teen decided not to wonder about what his familiar just had said, as it made no sense, and looked over at Draco. The teen finished combing his hair and Erus realized he probably should do the same. He quickly did so and dragged his hands through the hair. He rubbed his eyes a final time and said:

"Shall we go then?"

Erus' little group of friends from Santuario stepped into the Great Hall cautiously, and all breathed a sigh of relief when they saw Erus up and eating breakfast. The teen was currently feeding bacon to a panther which happily ate them away. They noted some people in the Hall gave the panther terrified looks, but the large cat was only aware of the bacon she was given.

"Morning," Abel said to Erus, Cynthia and Draco.

"Morning. Slept good?" Erus asked.

"Cain was throwing pillows at me in his sleep," Abel informed as he sat down.

"Same business then?"

"Unfortunately," the teen said with a sigh before Cain, Stella and the Russian twins sat down.